Biographies

"A pledge! I, Genbu Kurono will! With these brains and strength! Will be afraid of nothing! Will lose to nothing! Will swear to aim to the extremes, to the top of being an idol! Defending rivals, top-class. Push aside rivals and aim for glory!"

Personality

Genbu is a former yankee who became an idol alongside Suzaku Akai after being scouted by a 315 Production producer. He has a cool and calm personality but is also quite competitive at times, especially against Suzaku. Despite his chill appearance, he's not cold hearted or unfriendly, and gets along with other idols well. Genbu is dedicated and passionate, wanting to use his intellect and power to bring peace to all living beings on the Earth. He uses every experience in his life to improve himself, and sees himself as a child with spacious room for growth. He refers to Producer as Bancho-san and respectfully uses the -anisan (a mix of aniki (big brother) and san) honorific for the other adults at 315Pro. Genbu speaks in a rough tone stylistic of yankee, but also mixes in elegant phrases and idioms.

He wants to live life in his own style, dignifiedly using his brains and brawns to carry out justice for all. With a shrewd worldview, Genbu a sharp, strong sense of morals and good judgement. Being somewhat serious, he has a methodological approach to things and believes in following the rules most of the time. Genbu is highly responsible and good at preparation. He is hardworking in both school and life. Studious since a young age, he frequently uses Chinese four-character idioms (even in his solo song). Genbu is knowledgeable on many things, and constantly seeks even more knowledge by reading books and visiting museums. His skill is ranking first place in national mock exams. He attends Ouken High with Suzaku as a first year student, where he is his school’s socho, a chief for the other yankees at Ouken. He refers to minor yankees as his shatei (little bros/underlings), and does not tolerate them coming to school late.

In spite of how he looks, he’s got a kinda childish spirit like Suzaku’s. He refers to himself as Sharp Sword Genbu and uses his signature move Ice Sword Wave in lives. He even uses this move outside of performances, such as in one instance where he and Suzaku were pursuing an arsonist during the job change event: Genbu held the criminal in lock and yelled, "Eat this! ICE SWORD WAVE!" He can get pretty engrossed in a role when acting. During the butler event, he became so into his butler role that he spent a while speaking formally before snapping back into his usual rough way of speaking.

Genbu is best friends with Suzaku. With Genbu’s smarts and Suzaku’s strength, they work well together as a team. Genbu says that Suzaku is so important to him, that if it weren’t for him, he wouldn’t even be around. Suzaku describes Genbu as "smart, reliable, and the ideal man". However, Genbu does not get along well with Suzaku's cat, Nyako, as he is allergic to cats

He adores glasses; collecting them is one of his hobbies. He changes his glasses often to fit the season and day, but Suzaku can’t tell the difference (usually only small changes such as in the rim). His love of glasses stems from his past, when wearing glasses was the key to making him more approachable to others. He refers to them as a ‘magical tool’, and is passionate about picking out googles/glasses for Suzaku’s steampunk outfit. Genbu even considers them to be a part of his personality: in the Side:Knights event, Michio recommended that Genbu gifted a Christmas present based on himself, and so he gave a pair of glasses to Kaoru.

He knows how to cook due to living alone. Genbu makes sure to eat a balanced meal everyday, saying that “medicine and food have the same origin.” This comes from how Genbu formerly ate nutritionally balanced meals at his orphanage. Genbu said that he became good at making bento boxes once he had someone to make them for.

Backstory

Genbu grew up in an orphanage in Kyoto. He considers the memories of the time he spent at the orphanage are irreplaceable; though he doesn’t even remember his own parents’ faces, hanging out with the other kids was fun and similar to having many siblings. He was very studious as a child and often read complex works such as those referencing Confucius. Genbu’s eyesight began to go bad in elementary school, although he didn’t realize it until junior high, when his tendency to squint at others due to his eyesight caused him to get into fights with upperclassmen and frighten his classmates. He then got a pair of glasses, and was able to have friendly relationships with others and continue with his studies.

However, his good grades caused him to be the target of jealousy from others; in particular, Taro Yamashita, the son of the city’s mayor. Getting a couple more points than Taro in a test caused him to be cast out of Kyoto, and he was forced to move to Yokohama alone. He now resides near Yokohama’s Chinatown.

In junior high, Genbu met Suzaku when he was being attacked for unintentionally glaring at a group of high schoolers who thought that he was trying to pick a fight (although he was simply squinting due to losing his glasses). Suzaku quickly jumped in to save Genbu, but they lost the battle. However, as a result of fighting alongside each other, Suzaku and Genbu became buddies, and later best friends and an idol duo. Due to complications regarding his past, he is a first year senior high student rather than second year.

Trivia and Fan Culture

Trivia

Prior to Amehiko Kuzunoha being added to the game, Genbu was the tallest character in the entire iDOLM@STER franchise, standing up to 190 cm tall. He is now the second tallest, being 1 cm shorter than Amehiko.

The first time SideM introduced the birthday bonus was on Genbu's birthday, July 22. This meant that his cards had a 10x bonus on them, causing even his N cards to have a significant appeal. The bonus was lowered to 2x for all later birthdays.

In his SideM Xmas Live 2015 R card, Genbu is seen buying glasses. The Xmas Live 2015 Kaoru Sakuraba SR features Kaoru with the glasses's bag in the unchanged version, and Kaoru wearing the glasses in the changed version.

Like Suzaku, he is named after one of the four symbols of Chinese mythology. Genbu is named after the Black Tortoise of the North.

Fan Culture

He is sometimes depicted in fanworks with Kirari Moroboshi, due to both being among the tallest characters in the entire franchise.